Joy Ride (15)

Dir: Adele Lim

Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu

Joy Ride delivers a fresh perspective to the sex and drug fuelled comedies thanks to it’s talented cast of Asian women, but it’s key message is lost amongst the outlandish comedy set-pieces.

‘Joy Ride’ is the directorial debut of writer-producer Adele Lim, best known for writing Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon (2021). Like her previous bodies of work, this high energy, raunchy comedy serves as great representation for Asian-American talent, and showcases that Asian women can be just as funny and crude as white men.

Lim and co-writers, Cherry Chera Cherapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao try to walk a fine line between a heartfelt movie about self-discovery and gross-out, road trip comedy. I think for the first half of the film they get the balance absolutely right, but in the second half they lose their way as they try too hard to top other outrageous, female led comedies such as Bridesmaids (2011) or Girls Trip (2017). It is safe to say that ‘Joy Ride’ tops these when it comes to shock value, although this will only be effective if you have a high tolerance for in-your-face, broad humour.

The opening scene of ‘Joy Ride’ sets the tone of what is to come, we meet a Chinese-American couple in an overly white town near Seattle, as they try and find a friend for their young daughter, Lolo. They are approached by a white couple who express their desire to have Lolo play with their daughter, Audrey, who is revealed to be adopted from China. The girls are immediately confronted by their first playground bully, who starts hurling racist insults towards them, only for Lolo to shout “f*ck you” and proceed to punch the bully in the face, leaving Audrey in awe.

This fateful day sees the two girls become best friends, as they become inseparable throughout school and at the start of their careers. Audrey (Ashley Park, from Emily in Paris) is now a career-focused associate at a waspy, all male law firm. She is given the opportunity of a life-changing promotion, if she goes to Beijing to close a business deal with a potential partner. Not knowing the language, Audrey invites the much more chaotic and sexually expressive Lolo (Sherry Cola) along with her to act as translator. Seeing the trip more as a girls getaway than an important business trip, Lolo also invites her K-Pop loving cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), much to Audrey’s chagrin.

Once in the Chinese capital, the girls also meet up with Audrey’s friend from college, Kat (Stephanie Hsu, from Everything Everywhere All at Once), who is now a famous actor. Kat is engaged to her hunky, Christian co-star, Clarence (Desmond Chiam), who is unaware of the colourful love life she has lived up until their engagement – believing her to be a virgin, like him. With the three friends accompanying Audrey to her business meeting in a nightclub, Audrey is left facing a challenge: the Chinese businessman (Ronnie Chieng) will only close the deal if Audrey expresses more interest towards her Asian heritage. Determined to get the deal done, Audrey decides to find her birth mother, which sets the group of friends off on an odyssey that swiftly devolves into a series of escalating mishaps.

‘Joy Ride’ is at it’s strongest when it focuses on the central themes of identity and self-discovery. Ashley Park’s performance as Audrey is the engine behind this narrative, as we see the character feel out of place in both childhood and adulthood. As a child, Audrey and Lolo are the only two Asian children in the aptly named town of White Hills, and she is ridiculed by her fellow students for not looking like her white adoptive family. Despite being successful as an adult, Audrey is constantly belittled by Lolo for not being Asian enough, something which is only emphasised when the group are on their road trip of her homeland. Like the more nuanced The Farewell (2019), ‘Joy Ride’ is very much about family and the Asian-American experience of connecting to relatives that are emotionally and geographically distant.

These central themes are intertwined with increasingly bizarre comedy set-pieces, and this is where the film starts to lose it’s way. The film is marketed as a raunchy comedy, so if you are going in expecting to be shocked or grossed-out, you will not be disappointed. I feel however, after such a promising start which balanced the comedy and heart so well, by introducing a series of madcap set-pieces including: ill-advised tattoos and the group hooking up with a basketball team, the tone becomes too uneven. Once the comedy becomes too unbelievable, I found it hard to invest in the emotional beats that come towards the end of the film. This is not to say the film is not funny though, quite the opposite. The film’s electrifying energy manages to keep the jokes coming fast, and more times than not they pack a hilariously comedic punch. To further enhance the film’s breakneck energy, Paul Yee’s cinematography transports you from the drab streets of the Pacific North West to the vibrant cities of China and all the misty country roads and rural towns that separate them.

On the whole, ‘Joy Ride’ is a fun time. Even though I feel some of the comedy goes too far to the point where it borders on cringe, there are still plenty of laughs to be had. The central foursome, of the almost entirely Asian cast, have great chemistry and deliver their lines with impeccable comedic timing, which will keep you engaged from start to finish.

Joy Ride will be showing in Cinemas from Friday 4th August